Dogged defense

The Patriots were already the best defensive team in the state.
In their second straight two-win weekend, coach Craig Teagle thought they got even better.
Jay County held the visiting Centerville Bulldogs without a field goal in the second quarter as it built a double-digit halftime lead Saturday on the way to a 52-34 victory.
“I thought we were pretty dog gone good again defensively,” said Teagle, whose team is limiting opponents 33.9 percent shooting and a state-best 35.7 points per game. “I thought we were pretty active.
“They got away from us for a couple threes … that we would like not to have had happen, but I thought our guard pressure was outstanding, especially in the third period. We picked up full court. We got some steals off that, some deflections. And then I thought our pressure took them away from what they were trying to do.”
Centerville (9-3), which entered the game as the second-best defensive squad in the state, got a pair of free throws from Dallas Stiller at the 7:13 mark of the second quarter. But the Bulldogs didn’t score again for almost 10 minutes, shooting 0-for-6 from the field in the period.
JCHS turned up the defensive pressure in the second half, putting on a full-court press that resulted in several transition hoops.  The Patriots pushed their 10-point halftime lead to as many as 19 as they cruised in the final period.
Centerville became the eighth team this season, and the fourth straight, that Jay County has limited to fewer than 40 points. Leading scorer Brandon Suttle had a team-high nine points, but struggled to just 2-of-9 shooting.
“It’s always hard to score against them,” said CHS coach Ryan Chiddister. “We know what we’re getting into when we come over here or when they come to our place. It’s always a very physical, defensive-minded team. That’s what we want to play. It gets us prepared for tournament play.”
The Bulldogs were the second straight team to throw a zone at Jay County, and for the second consecutive night Kegan Comer played the role of zone breaker.
The JCHS junior, who went 4-of-6 from long distance Friday against Winchester, put the pressure on Centerville by hitting all of his three first-quarter 3-point attempts. The last of those came at the buzzer as he and Scott Schwieterman combined to score all of the Patriots’ 15 points in the period.
“One of the things we talked about prior to the start of the game was we had to be ahead at the end of the first quarter, just simply from a confidence standpoint,” said Chiddister, whose team entered the weekend 9-1 before taking losses to Monroe Central and Jay County. “And for him to come out and knock down three straight threes on us, it hurt us. It hurt us confidence-wise. … That was huge.”
Comer led the Patriots for the third straight game, shooting 7-of-8 from the field and making both of his foul shots for a game-best 19 points.Brock McFarland, who shared the game-high of 15 with Comer on Friday, joined him in double figures with 12 points, and Schwieterman added eight.
Jay County, which topped Connersville and Alexandria the previous weekend, was efficient on offense, shooting 66 percent, and becoming just the third team this season to tally more than 45 points against the Bulldogs.
“One thing we talked about before the game was, every time you catch it (make a) hard pass fake or a hard shot fake; Get the zone to shift and dribble attack,” said Teagle. “I thought we did that. I thought we got the zone moving, and I thought they got a little tired tonight.”

Junior varsity
The Patriots dominated the second half on the way to a 41-27 victory over Centerville.
The game was tied at the intermission, but Jay County limited the Bulldogs to two third-quarter points and led by at least six throughout the fourth quarter.
Darren Bogenschutz scored all of his game-high 13 points for the Patriots in the second half, including eight in the fourth quarter. Kyle Selvey hit three 3-pointers for nine points, and Jacob Schlosser scored six points.
Kyle Green finished with seven points to lead Centerville. Mickey Barnes added six.[[In-content Ad]]